The Great Game
The Great Game is the third and last episode of the BBC's Television series Sherlock's first series which was first broadcast on 8 August 2010. Summary Sherlock is commissioned by his brother Mycroft to investigate the suspicious death of a government employee who was working on a top-secret defence project: the Bruce-Partington Project. After apparently rejecting the case and handing it over to John, Sherlock begins to be taunted by a sinister criminal who puts his victims into explosive vests and sets Sherlock deadlines to solve apparently unrelated cases, including the disappearance of a businessman, the death of a TV personality and the death of a guard of an art gallery. Full plot Sherlock Holmes travels to Minsk to consider the case of an alleged murderer, Bewick, who claims that he murdered his girlfriend by accident. Sherlock is, of course, more offended by the man's crimes against good grammar than by the actual murder itself. He leaves, smugly informing Bewick that he will soon be hanged, not hung. At Baker Street, a bored Sherlock is reduced to shooting holes in the wall. When John Watson comes in, he discovers a decapitated head in the fridge, one of Sherlock's experiments. Sherlock is angry that his account of their first case on his blog has made him ridiculous by revealing that Sherlock lacks even primary school level notions of astronomy. Sherlock is of the opinion that any knowledge not likely to have an importance in his work takes up precious space in his brain. John goes out and Mrs. Hudson comes in. She sympathizes with Sherlock's disgust for a boring life, and assures him that he'll no doubt soon have a murder to investigate. As she leaves, an explosion rocks the building across the street, shattering the windows behind Sherlock. The next morning, John wakes up at Sarah's flat, where he's spent the night on the couch. As they flirt, they watch a newscast and John spots a piece on the explosion. He rushes back to the apartment and discovers Sherlock and his brother Mycroft sitting in the living room, unaffected by what seemed to be a staged gas leak. Mycroft tries to persuade his brother to look into the murder of MI6 employee Andrew "Westie" West, who was found in a rail yard in Battersea adjacent to a switch, with his head smashed and missing a USB that had been in his custody. Mycroft elaborates that the flash drive contained vital information about the Bruce-Partington missile project. Sherlock however, refuses to take the case, stating that his hands are already full. He eventually asks John to investigate it himself. Shortly after, DI Lestrade calls Sherlock to Scotland Yard. There, Sherlock is given a package, containing a replica of the pink mobile phone of Jennifer Wilson, the murder victim in "A Study In Pink". A message on the mobile plays five Greenwich pips and displays a photo of a rundown basement which he recognises as 221C Baker Street, the basement flat of his building. Sherlock, John and Lestrade go back to 221C and find a pair of trainers lying in the middle of the room. At that point, Sherlock receives a blocked phone call from a terrified woman in her parked car, and is reading a message that is obviously being sent by a third party. She urges Sherlock to solve the puzzle in 12 hours or the explosive vest she is being forced to wear will be detonated. Sherlock believes the five pips mean that he will be required to solve five challenges. Case #1: Carl Powers Sherlock and John go to St. Bart's laboratory to examine the trainers. They are interrupted by Molly Hooper, the lab tech who has a crush on Sherlock. She is hoping to make Sherlock jealous by introducing him to her new boyfriend Jim, an IT employee, who is impressed with Sherlock based on what Molly has told him. Sherlock simply informs her that Jim is gay, pointing out his meticulous self-grooming, exposed underwear and most importantly the telephone number he surreptitiously left under Sherlock's petri dish. Once Molly leaves, Sherlock invites John to examine the trainers, insisting that he can use a second opinion. John begins examining them, deducing that they belong to a child with large feet. Sherlock congratulates him, but notes that he missed almost everything. He explains that the shoes are 20 years old but well kept, and the mud and pollen on them indicates that they came from Sussex. Sherlock discovers that the shoes belonged to a schoolboy named Carl Powers, an athlete who came up to London from Brighton for a swimming competitiion and drowned in 1989 in a tragic accident. The case had attracted his attention at the time, because the victim's shoes weren't present with the rest of his stuff, however, he was underage and unable to get the police to open an investigation into his death. Now he is able to solve it simply from clues left on the sneakers: Carl Powers had been poisoned with botulism via his eczema medication. He applied a cream to his feet, and that's why his shoes were taken. He posts the results on the website, and the booby-trapped woman is freed by the bomb squad. Lestrade tells Sherlock and John that the woman was abducted by two men who broke into her house and forced her to drive to a remote parking lot, where they decked her out in an explosive vest with explosives in quantities high enough to destroy an entire house. She was forced to read from the pager, and would have been set off if she deviated by a word. During this time, John meets with Mycroft to collect more facts about the missing missile plans. Mycroft tells him that the dead man was a MI6 clerk, involved in the Bruce-Partington project in a minor capacity, and last seen with his fiancée Lucy the previous night. He was found at Battersea, is skull bashed in, but he didn't have a ticket or a used Oyster Card. John lies and insists that Sherlock is completely focused on the case. Case #2: Ian Monkford Next, Sherlock gets another picture message showing a sports car's front view. He also receives another phone call from a man trapped in a similar position to the woman who phoned him earlier, except he is standing in Piccadilly Circus, with a sniper ready to detonate his explosive vest jacket at a moment's notice. He gives Sherlock eight hours to solve the mystery. With Lestrade's help, they track down the vehicle, a small car hired by a banker named Ian Monkford, which is found abandoned at the docks, with a bloodstain over the driver's side seat. Posing as a close friend, Sherlock interviews Monkford's wife, learning that he was recently very depressed. Following the card he found in the glove box, he reaches a local rental car agency, Janus Cars. The owner, Ewart, claims that he didn't know Monkford. Sherlock notes that he has a tan and must have gone on holiday, but Ewart says that he uses a tanning bed. Sherlock then asks for change for the cigarette machine, but Ewart shows him his wallet and says he doesn't have any change. As they go, Sherlock says that he needed to see inside of Ewart's wallet, and now knows that he's a liar. At the lab, Sherlock examines the blood samples from the car. With three hours left, Sherlock takes John and Lestrade to the car, and explains that there was exactly a pint of blood, and it was frozen. He explains that the clue is in the name of Janus Cars - they can arrange for people to disappear, and Sherlock figures that Ian Monkford is in Columbia - Ewart had a 20,000 Columbian peso note in his wallet and quite a bit of pocket change in that currency as well, despite having said that he hadn't been abroad recently, and his tan-line clearly showed that he hadn't been on a tanning bed, plus he kept scratching his arm since he'd recently had a booster jump, allowing Sherlock to conclude that Ewart had just returned from settling Ian Monkford into a new life in Columbia, and Mrs. Monkford is in on it as well. Sherlock tells Lestrade to arrest her and then goes to notify the bomber via his website. The booby-trapped hostage is freed by emergency services. Case #3: Connie Prince John and Sherlock go out for a meal, and John wonders if it's Moriarty, the mysterious employer of the killer cabbie in "A Study in Pink". Sherlock's phone rings and someone sends him a photo of a woman, with three Greenwich pips. Sherlock has no idea what it is, but John recognizes her from the television. As he turns on the television, an elderly woman calls and relays a message that his new hostage is blind, and Sherlock has 12 hours to solve the new case, which is a funny one. When Sherlock asks why the bomber is doing it, he says (through the woman) that he loves watching Sherlock dance. Sherlock and John turn to the television, which is announcing the death of television makeover artist Connie Prince, who died recently from tetanus after cutting herself on the hand with a rusty nail. At the morgue, however, Sherlock shows that the wound was clean and was made after her death. Posing as a journalist, John interviews Connie's brother Kenny and decides he murdered his sister by infecting her cat's paws. Holmes demolishes this theory and instead blames her housekeeper Raoul de Santos, who committed the murder by increasing the dosage of her botox injections. Although Sherlock has solved the puzzle before the deadline, the bomber triggers the explosives upon the hostage when she starts describing his voice ("it was so soft"). The blast kills the woman and eleven of her neighbors (once again in a bombing staged to look like a gas leak), and Sherlock declares that he "lost that round". Sherlock explains that Moriarty is some sort of crime consultant who normally does not get himself exposed. John accuses him of relishing the challenge when lives are being endangered. Sherlock replies that being unemotional makes him more efficient which in turns saves those lives. Case #4: Alex Woodbridge The fourth piece appears as a photograph of the River Thames. Sherlock sets out for the scene and comes across the corpse of a man there. After surveying the scene, Sherlock starts checking Internet records. John examines the corpses and concludes that he was asphyxiated and dead for 24 hours. Sherlock explains that the water has destroyed most of the data, but the lost Vermeer painting is a fake. It turned up and is worth 30 million pounds. Lestrade has no idea what he's talking about, and Sherlock talks about the Golem, the name of an assassin. It seems that the M.O. is his trademark style. Various details about the victim's clothing - such as the fact that it is a standard-issue uniform, the fact that there is a place on his belt for a walkie-talkie, and he apparently does a lot of walking and sitting about - allow Sherlock to deduce that the man is a security guard. The killer was also interrupted before he could pull off an insignia. Further examination reveals ticket stubs in the victim's pocket, indicating a museum or art gallery. The Hickman Gallery, where the Vermeer painting is located, has reported one of their attendants, Alex Woodbridge, as missing since about the same time that the corpse has presumed to have been cold. The Gallery is showing the Vermeer that night, and Woodbridge was killed because he knew something that would stop the sale. Sherlock sets off to find the Golem, while wondering why the bomber hasn't contacted him. Sherlock has the cab pull over and goes up on a pier. He gives money to a homeless woman, tells John that he's "investing," and then goes on to the gallery. When they get there, he tells John to check out the attendant and goes inside. John gets the attendant's address from Lestrade and talks to his roommate, who mentions that Woodbridge was an amateur astronomer, but didn't know anything about art. She says that someone left a message for Alex, and plays it back. It's Professor Cairns, a local professor, calling to tell Alex that he was was right. Mycroft calls and asks if there's any progress on the Bruce-Partington plans. At the Hickman Gallery, the owner, Mrs. Wenceslas, notices Sherlock disguised as a security guard and analyzing the Vermeer. She insists that it's not a fake but Sherlock says it is even if he can't prove it yet, and leaves. That night, Sherlock meets with John, who explains that Alex Woodbridge knew nothing about art and was an amateur astronomer. Sherlock is more interested in the woman he gave change to earlier. She slips him an address and he leaves, taking John with him. They go to a seedier part of town and Sherlock explains that he has established a homeless network and pays them for information. They notice a tall, skinny balding man, the Golem, but he gets away in a car before they can catch up to him. John says he knows where he's going. Professor Cairns, meanwhile, is running a video of a planetarium. The Golem attacks her, but John and Sherlock arrive and call out. He releases Cairns and flees into the darkness, and then ambushes Sherlock. John draws his gun and tells the Golem to surrender. The Golem knocks him aside and the two men try to subdue the assassin. They fail and he flees. Though Sherlock and John have failed to save her life, the garbled astronomy presentation playing on their arrival (garbled due to it being damaged during the attack) gives Sherlock the clue he needs as to what makes the painting a fake - the (fictional) Van Buuren supernova in the skyscape, which appeared in 1858 and thus could not have been painted in the 1640s. At the station, Wenceslas admits that she only wanted her share of the 30 million pounds. She met a forger in Argentina, and eventually she was put in touch with people who worked for the mysterious bomber, who helped her set up the sale. However, she never met with him. Sherlock demands a name, and she finally tells them that it was Moriarty. Case #5: Andrew West At Sherlock's behest, John is investigating the Andrew West case on his own and examines the crime scene where he is puzzled to hear that little blood was found on the tracks. Sherlock appears behind him, confirming his suspicion that West was killed somewhere else and dumped on the roof of a train and then fell off when the car experienced a slight jolt from passing over the switch points. Subsequently, they break into the apartment of West's prospective brother-in-law, Joe Harrison, who is a bike messenger. They find traces of blood on the windowsill of a window overlooking a railroad line. When Joe comes home, they confront him about the murder and the theft. Joe breaks down, confessing that he stole the Bruce-Partington data because he started dealing drugs and ended up in debt. One night he went out drinking with West, who boasted about the secret missile plans and showed Harrison the memory stick. Harrison stole it from his drunken brother-in-law, but West realized it later and confronted him. West accidentally died in the fight when he fell down a stairway, and then Joe had the idea to place him on top of a train to get the body as far away as possible. While a train was stopped underneath the window, Joe rolled West's body onto the train roof, and the train pulled away. The body subsequently fell off from the sudden jolt of the passenger cars when the wheel axles hit the switch points. Harrison turns over the memory stick, and Sherlock says that the distraction is over. Sherlock tells John that he has returned the memory stick and waits by the pink phone while watching incredibly terrible television until John goes out to meet Sarah. He then contacts Moriarty, offering the missile plans and arranging a meeting at the swimming pool where Carl Powers died. When he arrives, he is greeted by John, who at first appears to taunt him but reveals that he is wearing an explosive vest and is having his words dictated to him like the previous hostages. Moriarty finally appears and turns out to be Jim, Molly's pseudo-boyfriend. The volatile and clearly unhinged Moriarty throws the USB stick in the pool and explains that the whole point of the exercise was to show Sherlock what he is capable of and to warn him to stay out of his way, threatening to "burn the heart out of him." John grabs Moriarty, but the sniper points immediately turn to Sherlock, so he lets him go and Moriarty leaves, allowing Sherlock to rip the jacket off John. Seconds later, lasers appear on the pair of them and Moriarty returns, having changed his mind and decided to kill them both now, saying they "can't be allowed to continue". Sherlock aims his handgun first at Moriarty, but then changes his aim towards the explosive vest that was strapped to John and is now lying on the floor at Moriarty's feet. The episode ends on this cliffhanger. Cast *Sherlock Holmes ... Benedict Cumberbatch *Dr John Watson ... Martin Freeman *DI Lestrade ... Rupert Graves *Mrs Hudson ... Una Stubbs *Sarah ... Zoe Telford *Molly Hooper ... Louise Brealey *Jim ... Andrew Scott *Sgt Sally Donovan ... Vinette Robinson *Bezza ... Matthew Needham *Tube Guard ... Kemal Sylvester *Alan West ... San Shella *Crying Woman ... Deborah Moore *Lucy ... Lauren Crace *Scared Man ... Nicholas Gadd *Mrs Monkford ... Caroline Trowbridge *Mr Ewart ... Paul Albertson *Blind Lady ... Rita Davies *Connie Prince ... Di Botcher *Kenny Prince ... John Sessions *Raoul ... Stefano Braschi *Homeless Girl ... Jeany Spark *Julie ... Alison Lintott *Miss Wenceslas ... Hadyn Gwynne *Joe ... Doug Allen *Golem ... John Lebar *Professor Cairns ... Lynn Farleigh Category:Episodes